The Hatters
by dragongirlj
Summary: It was a normal morning for Hatter and Alice until out of a mysterious puddle on the fire escape produced a strange man wearing a top hat


Alice sighed and took a sip of her coffee, sighing with contentment as she looked out into the skyline of New York. The city's view in the morning was breathtaking, but it had nothing on Wonderland. Alice turned away from the window and peeked into the bedroom where her husband was still asleep, his hat not too far from the bedside. She grinned and looked back out the window before she heard the loud thump. The coffee fell from her hands as she rushed to the window pane to see that on the fire escape a man was hanging onto the railing for dear life, a dark blue top hat clutched in his hand.

"Hatter!" She called out for her husband for backup as she pulled the window up, scrambling onto the fire escape. A few years earlier and she would have never contemplated going out on the high up escape but her fear of heights had been dispelled just a short while ago.

"Hang on!" She called to the stranger, looking over at a strange puddle on the metal for a moment and then reached down for the man. He looked up at her suspiciously before grabbing her hand and Alice pulled until the man hissed.

"Move. I can handle it from here." Alice blinked and she let go of the man's wrist as his hand clamped down on the top bar and easily flipped over the bar. He flicked his top hat, all dents in it disappearing, and swept his arm back and bowed to Alice. "Thank you, kind woman." He flipped the top hat from behind him and straightened up, the top hat landing neatly on his head. "Now, I must leave."

"Alice! What's wrong?" Hatter rushed out onto the fire escape and clasped his hand around her arm and the other holding his hat down, "and who are you?"

"He was hanging off the fire escape and…"

"My name is Hatter Madigan, Royal Bodyguard to Princess Alyss Heart of Wonderland." The man bowed yet again and glanced up at Hatter…well, more accurately, his hat, "What branch of the Millinery are you?"

Hatter and Alice blinked before glancing around, "We need to get him inside before someone hears him."

"Agreed….wait, did he say his name was Hatter too?"

"Yes, you're a hatter as well?" Hatter Madigan glanced up at Hatter's hat and back at him for a moment, "We have top hats though."

"Yes, my name is Hatter, just get in!" Hatter motioned to the open window and Hatter Madigan blinked before slipping through, Alice and Hatter soon behind him.

As soon as Alice closed the window, "Now repeat your name again?"

Hatter Madigan sighed, "My name is Hatter Madigan, Royal Bodyguard to Princess Alyss Heart of Wonderland. Do you have any idea where she is?"

Alice and Hatter looked between each other, the same look etched into their faces, _"What's going on?"_

Hatter Madigan looked between them and raised an eyebrow, "I would wonder if you guys didn't know what I'm talking about, but you two have the glow of Wonderland.

"What? You know what? Never mind." Alice sighed, "Yes, I know what Wonderland is, but I don't know an Alice Heart, but I do know a Jack Heart and my name is Alice. Hatter's name is, well, Hatter, but that ends my knowledge."

Madigan raised an eyebrow, "Jack of Diamonds is married to Alyss. I know I should have probably seen that coming but that idiot?"

"Yes! Finally, someone sees Jack as he really is!" Hatter pumped his fist in the air and held his hand out, "David Hatter….ummm…husband of this Alice?"

Hatter Madigan blinked before shaking the really odd Hatter's hand, "are you really in the Millinery?"

"I have no idea what that is." Hatter Madigan's hand returned to his side and he tilted his hat to Alice.

"Well, then, apparently you can't help me then. Thank you for helping me, Alice.

"Wait, we didn't say we couldn't help you." Hatter reached out and grabbed the man's shoulder in what could have been his dying move for within two seconds, Hatter found his arm twisted and a knife protruding from Madigan's wrist at his neck.

"Don't ever touch me." Madigan said coolly.

"Okay, calm down. Mr. Madigan, will you please explain your story?" Alice grabbed Hatter's arm.

"Yeah, without the threatening knife?" He squeaked out. Madigan retracted the knife and nodded.

"Very well then, it all started Queen Genevieve threw a birthday party for her seven year old daughter, Alyss. Queen Genevieve's sister Redd barged in with the help of her feline assassin called The Cat and started killing everyone in the room…."

Half a day later and many cups of tea, Hatter Madigan finally wrapped up his story, "And then I popped out of the puddle on your fire escape. Unfortunately, I didn't calculate the distance from the puddle and the edge accurately."

Hatter blinked, "So your hat turns into a blade?" Madigan nodded and grabbed the brim of his hat, flicking it into a series of five blades connected into one point.

"My most powerful weapon."

"And this Alice girl is the actual Alice? In Wonderland?" Alice gulped as Hatter Madigan nodded, "Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but Alice Liddell, she died a long time ago."

Hatter Madigan didn't even blink, "What year am I in?"

"2009, why?"

"It was January, 1872, last time I checked." Hatter Madigan coughed, "Well, apparently it's back through that puddle for me." He bowed to them both, "I thank you for your help, but I must be going now."

"Won't you stay for a little longer?" Alice asked, standing up from the couch, her hands on her own Hatter's arm.

Hatter Madigan straightened his spine and shook his head, "It is my sworn duty to protect the royalty of Wonderland. Well." Hatter Madigan smiled a wry grin, "at least, the royalty that rightfully deserves the throne." He turned to Hatter and crossed his arms, "Are you sure you're not in the Millinery? You have the glow of one."

Hatter's eyes widened and he shook his head vehemently, "Heck no. Not with all the stuff you guys go through."

Hatter Madigan nodded and slipped out the window, the other two watching as he stepped into the puddle and disappeared.

"I was almost expecting him to have made that entire story up." Alice said, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, there's never been a Millinery in Wonderland…and how plausible is it that there's two Wonderlands?"

Alice raised an eyebrow and smirked at Hatter, "I don't know, but that guy was awesome…hmmm, the exact opposite of you!"

Hatter glared at her and crossed his arms, "Oh yeah." Alice smiled and wrapped her arms around her husband.

"And I believe I like it better that way."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ten Months Later

"And then I said to the Jabberwocky, 'no, my good sir! That would be bad for my health!' He didn't take it so well" Charlie pouted on the couch, a little newborn girl with chocolate brown eyes in his lap, "You may not remember this story when you grow older, so I will remember to tell this to you every year!"

Hatter leaned over and whispered in Alice's ear, "I could have sworn that that would make her cry."

"Dinah's a tough baby; she takes after me, after all." Alice smirked and burst out laughing as Hatter proceeded to fake growing angry.

"Oh really, and why doesn't she take after me?" Alice opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by a loud thump outside.

"What in pink polka dancing was that?" Charlie moved Dinah into her crib before attempting to brandish his sword. Hatter waved him off.

"If I'm right, it's someone we know." And sure enough, a shadow fell across the window and a man with a top hat appeared.


End file.
